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2008-05-02

Thus starts Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, which I believe she originally wrote as a parody of gothic novels that were out at the time. (I may not be correct about that, BTW.)

I'd never attempted to read the book, as I'd seen the movie several times; I did know that the ending had to be cleaned up for this movie version. This, because of the infamous Production Code; all I'll say is that it involved a murder and one of the characters.

When my sis-in-law gave me all of her classic, hardbound books a few years ago, I wondered if I'd actually read any of them. I started on Rebecca sometime last year. After all, that first line...it just had to be good.

Meh.

The beginning dragged and dragged and dragged for me. I felt like my brain was going to fall out or something - it was that dreary.

Others may like it, though count me among those who wonder why. But always remember that the way I look at it, you like what you like, and their is no such thing as a guilty pleasure - just a pleasure, thank you. :-)

So here's some trivia for ya:

Ronald Colman was originally pencilled in as Max de Winter. The part eventually went to Laurence Olivier, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.

Naturally, Vivien Leigh tried out for the part of the second Mrs. de Winter; after all, she was in luuurve with Olivier (during filming of Gone With the Wind, too, although the studio kept Leigh and Olivier separated for most - if not all - of the filming).

The role went to Joan Fontaine, Olivia de Havilland's sister. She, too, was nominated for an Oscar, for Best Actress.

The largest of the Manderley miniatures took up nearly an entire soundstage.